The government response to the Munro Review- Two steps forward, one big step back.

This post is provided by our Lead Consultant, Nick Lister; more about him at the end.

On 13 December 2011, Tim Loughton, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families gave an update to Parliament on progress being made across the range of commitments in the Government response to the Munro Review, published in July.

The details of the response can be seen in full at the Department of Education website which shows a full list and links to the full answer to parliament. 

There appear to be some steps forward and inevitably some steps back. 

If you (like us) were expecting early amendments to Working Together 2010 before Christmas, you will notice that the trial Authorities who are looking at different assessment models and timescales will carry on their work towards ‘timely professional judgements’ until March 31^st 2012.

Therefore it appears that there will be no interim changes to the underpinning legislation until Working Together is rewritten next year in its slimmed down version. However, there are lots of Authorities beavering away developing practice and new ways of working. 

A similar approach is being taken towards Serious Case Reviews (SCR’s). Coventry and Lancashire have been given dispensation from chapter 8 of Working Together 2010 to use the SCIE model of systems based case reviews for a case that meets the criteria and at the same time this model is being developed in new guises to be more flexible in its approach.

However, Ofsted are not going to be released from their obligation to evaluate SCR’s and whilst their recent Letter to LSCB chairs and Children’s Services Directors indicates that they are aiming to evaluate learning more than process, there appears to be little understanding of the systems approach which underpins the model promoted by Professor Munro. It is interesting to see that the involvement and impact of families in the process is to be one of their ‘learning domains’.

The biggest disappointment in the update was that government has decided to step back from creating a statutory duty to ensure that an 'early help offer' is provided. They believe that there is sufficient existing legislation for this to be achieved. It is too much to expect a government to say that something so evidently good simply can't be afforded but this is more likely to be at the heart of their decision.

These are tough but interesting times in the world of protecting children and importantly Professor Munro’s philosophy is beginning to take shape as highlighted by the Social Work Reform Board, The College of Social Work and the new, integrated, child centred inspection regimes.

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Nick Lister is a Lead Consultant at Tri.x - Nick has been working with Tri.x as a 'Lead Author' - during that time, he has developed a great working relationship with many of customers in Children's Social Care, Safeguarding, Children's Homes and Fostering Agencies.

As a freelance/consultant, he established an Advocacy Service for young people and has chaired and provided reports in Serious Case Reviews. Nick is an accredited Reviewer for the Social Care Institute for Excellence, Learning Together model of case reviews.

Before becoming a freelance consultant, he was the Registered Manager for an Independent Providers Fostering Agency. Prior to this, he fulfilled a variety of roles in the Public Sector e.g. as Manager of a Children's Disability Service and Youth Offending/Courts Services Manager.